We never know, going in, how long we will know a person. Just as we never know if the friendship will endure the pressures and stress of life. Some people we will know but for a fleeting moment in our lives, whereas others we will know for years. Then there are the select few relationships that we manage to keep throughout our lives.
The people we meet change everything. Whether they know or we acknowledge it or not, change occurs. This change occurs slowly over time or falls into place all at once. No two people have the same effect on our life. Just as we have potential to grow from people, we have the potential to grow others. It is what we do with that potential that matters; it is our choice.
There are so many people that we meet and engage with on a daily basis that we may never come into contact with again in the course of our life. I think about the weeks that I spent in Australia and New Zealand during college and of all the people that I met and interacted with that I may not see again during my life. There are people whom I met during those travels that grew me and strengthened me, that caused changed within me because I chose to allow those interactions to change me. It is my hope that through those interactions I was able to bring about change in their lives as well.
I more recent memory stirs within me though, of a group of people that I engaged with this summer. This group of people have irrevocably changed my perspective and through that my life. Through them, I learned that the power that God has put within me to reach into and shape people has not been wasted on me, but rather has been given to me for a purpose. I ache in my heart for this group of people, to be in community with them again, to go through life with them. Regardless of whether or not that I will be able to do that, I press into God that I may not simply know them in this season and then forget about them in the next. Rather, I hope that the interactions we had would hold weight and the changes God used them to stir up in me would be used for others. In as much as they have shaped me in such a short time, I have also spoken into them.
We never know where our influence stops or where the impact of our decisions or relationships end. God will use every single interaction we have if we simply make ourselves available to him. It is amazing that through a simple smile and wave that we can be agents of change in someone else’s life. I think about a day when my path briefly crossed the path of an older lady from my church. To me, it was naught more than a wave and smile to greet, but for her, it held an impact that I did not truly know until weeks later. This lady came to me in a rush, asking if it was me that had waved and smile that day, upon learning it was, she told me that, “God used you to make me see clearly that day. He used you to refocus and center my heart. In that moment, I knew that God had not left me and that I needed to push through my circumstances.” Too often we miss these moments because we have a tunnel vision perspective that what matters most right now in our lives is that which affects us. This perspective couldn’t be further from the truth, everyone has circumstances in their life that requires their attention and oftentimes these circumstances bring stress to the person. However, God did not create us to live independent of one another or their circumstances. Instead, we were created to do life together in community; this community requires us to be vulnerable to others and dependent upon God.
It is when we strip away that tunnel vision and seek for God to use every circumstance, every step, and every word, that He provides opportunity for us to be changed and to affect change in others. This change only comes when we are first changed by Jesus Christ.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2
“Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.” Titus 3:14
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